POSTED ON FEBRUARY 03, 2009

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan left many a Frenchman startled with her response to the prestigious Officer Dan Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres honour. Ash apparently requested the French government to stall the service when its second highest civilian award was announced in her name. Incidentally, Shah Rukh Khan is the only other Bollywood actor to have received the honour. There’s only one higher French civilan honour — the Legion d’honour which father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan, Satyajit Ray and Pandit Ravi Shankar have received. However, Ash was not turning down the French award. She was just putting it off until her ailing father, Krishna Raj Rai, was well enough to attend the award ceremony. Now that Krishna is well enough, Ash has asked the French government to go ahead with the ceremony. It is likely to be held in Paris when the actress attends the world premiere of her film, Pink Panther 2.